Transcript of Human vs and part machine - TVP magazine
- 1. special HUMANHUMAN VSVS//ANDAND//PARTPART MACHINEMACHINE BY
TIO TTVVPPMM
- 2. Over the last 150-200 years or so, humans have invented many
tools that are so sophisticated that they become more and more
similar to humans in many of their functionalities, surpassing
humans at many tasks, helping them at many more, and enhancing what
it is to be human. Tools are not only something that humans use
anymore, they are transforming what it means to be human. The
entire society relies on machines for measurements and
calculations, transportation, delivery, communication and more,
human parts are being replaced with these tools for better health,
and overall, nearly everything that has to do with humans has to do
with the tools they invented. In this special TVP Magazine issue,
we will look at how these tools surpass humans on many levels, how
they are part of what humans are, and also why the distinction
between human-made tools (the machines) and ourselves (biological
creatures) is blurry. We will also look at the possibility of these
machines becoming human-like: thinking, feeling, full of emotions,
moods, and creativity.
- 3. The entire issue will also focus on the practicality of
these tools and what we can do with them: from enhancing health
while creating an abundance of treatments and cures, replacing
boring, dangerous and repetitive jobs, enhancing our own senses,
and more. We will also present the real value, the scientific one,
of these tools, and try to demystify the juicy news/articles/
documentaries that focus of such tools: nanobots, artificial
intelligence, artificial body parts, etc.. It will be a very
interesting journey, full of the latest tech, different
perspectives about technology and human behavior, games/puzzles and
some science that will help you rethink what you are, and much,
much more.
- 4. 1. HUMAN VS MACHINE Many scientists, economists and
tech-savvy people have been focusing lately on technological
unemployment, while many newscasts increasingly point out that
robots/machines are steadily taking jobs away from people. Although
they present certain key points as to why and how this is
happening, we will not present similar job-related arguments, but
will instead analyze the various skills that humans possess: from
their vision to strength, creativity to memory, mobility and
flexibility, to see just how well they stack up against todays best
machines. If machines can see better, are more flexible, and are
better able to deal with more information and tools than humans,
then it becomes very obvious as to why its a good thing that
machines will continue to be used in place of humans, adopting all
sorts of jobs that humans currently handle. 2. PART HUMAN, PART
MACHINE: REPLACEMENTS We look into how we can replace nearly all
parts of the human body with mechanical alternatives: from lungs,
heart, limbs, spleen, to eyes or even parts of the brain. We look
at almost all of them, providing cutting-edge examples and the
results of recent clinical trials for the devices we present. We
also might surprise you with an explanation of how we see and why
that is very important when considering the replacement of eyes
with mechanical devices. As a bonus, well even show you people who
can hear colors and others who see sound. 3. PART HUMAN, PART
MACHINE: ENHANCEMENTS In this part, we look at how we can enhance
what we are - our biology. We look at nanobots, explaining what
they are and what they can do today; how can we add new senses,
from sensing distances or impending earthquakes, to allowing the
deaf to sense words. We will help you significantly rethink the way
you sense the world, and how enhancing our senses can dramatically
improve communication and expand our understanding of reality.
- 5. 4. HUMAN-MACHINE In this installment, we cover how our own
bodies are themselves machines and how, by understanding this, we
can actually grow organs, print body parts, and create an abundance
of very personalized medical treatments, all working together to
solve the very important issue of health scarcity around the world.
5. ARTIFICIAL (OR NOT) INTELLIGENCE, RANDOMNESS AND FREE WILL Have
you ever wondered what artificial intelligence really means, or how
it works? We demystify it for you, looking at how cars can drive
themselves, how software is now able to recognize faces, or play
video games and conduct research, and if this software could become
dangerous. But all of that may be a bit of a trick, because this
article is also about you, as we question human behavior and
explain how to predict randomness. We also have some intriguing
games for you to play, interesting perspectives, and some very real
science that will make recent news titles about artificial
intelligence look quite stupid. START THESTART THE
JOURNEYJOURNEY
- 6. HUMAN VS MACHINE
- 7. Human beings are extraordinary creatures. Just think of the
machines they built, the discoveries they made, and the continual,
steady progress of this thing they call science. They can look back
billions of years into the abyss of the universe through telescopes
and mathematical formulas, manipulate atoms and even enhance their
biology. However, the human being, the individual, is extremely
obsolete without the tools he invented. And when I say obsolete,
were talking in terms of the kinds of jobs that are required in
todays monetary system. From their arms and legs to their brains
and varied skills, it seems obvious that humans have become
surpassed by machines that can do far better jobs, even without any
human control/involvement.
- 8. So, what if we take all of the top tools the human invented
and compare them to the bare-naked human creature? From their
vision to dexterity; from memory to creativity, would humans stand
any chance against their machines?
- 9. HEARING AND SNIFFING If you currently rely on humans, with
their little ears and tiny noses, to be detectors of any sort of
sounds and odors, then you would be better off hiring a cow, as it
hears and detect odors better than any human can. Actually this is
the same reason why dogs are often used to detect odors (dangerous
chemicals, drugs, gunpowder, etc.) and not humans. But even
well-trained dogs are being systematically replaced with robots
that are continually getting better at sniffing a variety of
smells. Gasbot is one such robot, used for detecting and mapping
bio-gas emissions at landfill sites.
- 10. REMOTE METHAN SENSING LASER SCANING PANTILT UNIT INDOOR
LOCALIZATION ALL TERRAIN ROBOTIC PLATFORM It can: - Localize itself
and navigate in semi-structured environments, both indoor and
outdoor - Produce models of the gas distribution - Detect and
localize gas sources
- 11. When it comes to hearing, check out this auditory illusion
to see how very easily humans are tricked by what they hear,
depending on what they watch when they hear it. HUMAN AUDITORY
FIELD INFRASOUNDS elephant, mole cat, 20 20 000
- 12. Today, a plethora of devices exist that are used to detect
even the slightest sounds, or are unharmed by the loudest of them.
The human ear can be easily damaged by loud noise, and is
completely deaf to most of the sound frequencies that can be
detected by human devices. Even when compared to other animals,
humans are quite deaf. THUS, RELYING ON HUMANS HEARING AND SNIFFING
ABILITIES IS EITHER ANTIQUATED, OR WAS NEVER REALLY RELIED UPON IN
THE FIRST PLACE. ULTRASOUNDS dog bat, dolphin 40 000 160 000
FREQUENCY (HZ)
- 13. ARMS AND TOUCH Human arms are fantastic tools. Because of
them, we have mice and keyboards, space shuttles and supermarkets,
clothes and written language. However, for the past 50 years since
the development of modern day technologies, human arms are being
systematically replaced by a variety of mechanized arms: from
construction to writing, from production of any sort of products to
machinery control. We already have robots that can pretty much
manufacture anything from the microscopic to the macroscopic.
Looking at the huge variety of robot arms that currently exist,
exhibiting so many sophisticated movements and control, human hands
are already looking like old tools. We have robot hands with 360
degree joint rotation, n fingers with fine sensitivity to pressure
and temperature, simulating our touch sensation. They are extremely
robust, and come in so many shapes, forms and materials. You can
read our special TVPM edition on automation to see many examples
that currently exist, so we wont go through all these examples
again in this article.
- 14. WRIST ROTATION BASE ROTATION REVOLUTE GEOMETRY When it
comes to relying on human hands to handle complex tasks, you can
easily replace them with mechanical arms/tools. No human hands can
screw a screw, but a screw driver can do that without any human
hands. In todays world, human arms are almost useless without
tools, and many of the tools can be automatically controlled by
various systems or robot arms. ELBOW 1 ROTATION ELBOW 2 ROTATION
SHOULDER ROTATION
- 15. But we also write with our mouths or control devices with
our brains. You dont need a human hand these days to create
something. Stephen Hawking, a very influential scientist who has a
rare form of ALS that makes him unable to move, manages to write
books, scientific papers, develop new formulas, and talk, using
only the movements of his cheek and very little movement of one of
his hands.
- 16. VOICE Speaking of voice :), text-to-speech software has
been gradually gaining a more and more natural voice over time.
Sometimes it is hard to tell the difference between a synthesized
voice and a human voice. One example is the IVONA voices
collection. Listen to this short demo to hear for yourself. You can
also go to ivona.com to listen to demos in more languages. IMAGINE
SUCH SOFTWARE READING A STORY TO YOUR CHILDREN OR NARRATING
DOCUMENTARIES INTO ANY LANGUAGE, OR PROVIDING A VOICE FOR A
CHARACTER IN AN ANIMATED MOVIE OR GAME - AND ALL OF THAT AVAILABLE
IN BOTH MALE OR FEMALE VOICES, IN MULTIPLE LANGUAGES AND
ACCENTS.
- 17. MOBILITY AND REACTION
- 18. Humans generally have no problem standing up. They can
climb stairs, run, climb trees and react extremely quickly.
Imagining a robot that can do all of that is a bit difficult, since
the best robot out there that can perform such tasks that are small
and easy for a human is extremely slow and very inflexible compared
to a human. However robots are continually improving, as this
series of DARPA robots attest while showing great mobility in many
different circumstances: Robots can now walk, run, climb stairs,
maintain their equilibrium in tough situations, and more. Do not
forget though that when we think of robots as clumsy, its because
we so often test them in our human- centric world, a world full of
chairs and stairs, doors and floors, and lots of walls. Thus, the
mobility of a robot can be made substantially better, considering a
robot can be provided with various types of propulsion, such as
wheels, legs, wings, the ability to hover in the air, and more. Try
to swim faster, or otherwise out-perform a robot designed to move
through water. Or try to outrun a robot with wheels. There is even
a robot with legs that can outrun the fastest man on Earth.
- 19. USAIN BOLT 44.72 KM/H 27.44 MPH
- 20. DARPA'S CHEETAH 45.54 KM/H 28.3 MPH
- 21. Human reaction time may seems very quick, but just take a
look at this experiment to see what our human reactions look like
in slow motion. Then watch this one, with a robotic hand that is
far superior at reaction time and dexterity than any human hand can
be.
- 22. EPFL RECENTLY DEVELOPED A ROBOT HAND THAT IS 3-6 TIMES
FASTER THAN THE AVERAGE HUMAN EYE-HAND REACTION. The robot uses a
high speed camera for detecting objects and is programmed simply by
manually pointing the hand at the object. The robot then recognizes
the movement and adapts to catching the object tossed at it. Watch
a demo video
- 23. STRENGTH AND DURABILITY
- 24. THE STRONGEST MAN ON EARTH CAN LIFT AROUND 3 TIMES HIS OWN
WEIGHT A DUNG BEETLE CAN LIFT A THOUSAND TIMES ITS OWN WEIGHT A
machine we know how to build can lift...well, perhaps an unlimited
amount of weight. The days when humanity had to rely on human
muscle power are long obsolete. A human is also prone to diseases,
and a human needs breaks and food. A machine can work non-stop,
without breaks, and is far more durable than any human.
- 25. ON LAND, THEON LAND, THE NASANASA
CRAWLER-TRANSPORTERCRAWLER-TRANSPORTER CAN TRANSPORT LOADSCAN
TRANSPORT LOADS OVEROVER 9000 TONS9000 TONS, MEANING, MEANING IT
CAN TRANSPORT THEIT CAN TRANSPORT THE ENTIREENTIRE EIFFEL
TOWEREIFFEL TOWER..
- 26. NASAS CRAWLER-TRANSPORTER IS DESIGNED TO BE VERY SLOW, BUT
THIS TRUCK IS MUCH FASTER AND CAN TRANSPORT 400 TONS AT ONCE. THAT
IS, IT CAN TRANSPORT TWO HUGE BLUE WHALES AT ONCE.
- 27. THIS HUGE MONSTER IS ALMOST 100 METERS (328 FEET) TALL AND
225 METERS (738 FEET) LONG. IT IS USED FOR DIGGING AND TRANSPORTING
EARTH (MATERIALS) AND CAN TRANSPORT 4 TIMES THE VOLUME OF THE
LARGEST SWIMMING POOL ON EARTH, EVERY DAY.
- 28. HUMANS
- 29. THE LARGEST SWIMMING POOL IN THE WORLD IS SO BIG THAT YOU
CAN SAIL SMALL BOATS INSIDE ITS AREA.
- 30. THIS MACHINETHIS MACHINE, KNOWN AS A, KNOWN AS A MOLEMOLE,
CAN DRILL HOLES UP, CAN DRILL HOLES UP TOTO 19 METERS19 METERS IN
DIAMETER,IN DIAMETER, THROUGH SOLID ROCK.THROUGH SOLID ROCK.
- 31. ON WATER, MACHINES CAN TRANSPORT EVEN BIGGER LOADS. THIS
WATER SHIP IS 4 FOOTBALL FIELDS LONG AND CAN TRANSPORT NOT JUST ONE
EIFFEL TOWER, BUT 46 OF THEM!
- 32. VISION Our vision is not only limited to the eyes, but
instead is about the eyes and the brain. So are our other senses,
but for the sake of example, lets keep this simple. Have you been
out today? If so, I bet you came across many people. How many faces
do you remember? Perhaps none, because the way we see is quite
poor. Our eyes can only focus on their center point, and our
overall attention is very limited.
- 33. Watch this video to test your selective attention: If you
stretch your arms out at 180 degrees and then look straight
forward, you will probably not see your arms anymore. More to that
point, if you focus on a single word in this text, you will soon
realize how the words near it become more and more blurry the
farther they are from the centered word, until they just dissapear
from your field of view. With all that you see every day, only a
very small spot in your field of vision is sharp, while the rest is
blurry and parts of it are colorless.(source) Even a relatively
cheap camera nowadays can capture a 360 degree video, and it has no
loss of color. You can understand this 360 degree capability by
watching this short video. SHARP DETAILS 2 180 130
- 34. HOW MUCH CAN YOU ZOOM IN ON THIS PHOTO WITH YOUR EYES? CAN
YOU SPOT THE YELLOW KAYAKS?
- 35. FOCUS HARD, THEY ARE HERE SOMEWHERE
- 36. There are drones that survey areas from higher than a 5 km
altitude (around 3 miles) and, from there, can spot a pigeon flying
close to the ground. They can also stream live footage to the
ground and detecting/tracking all moving objects from cars to
people.
- 37. THE HUMAN EYE ALSO DOES A PRETTY BAD JOB IN LOW LIGHT
CONDITIONS. IT TAKES A WHILE FOR OUR EYES TO ADJUST AND, EVEN ONCE
THEY DO, ON A VERY DARK NIGHT, WE CAN MAYBE SPOT 2-5 THOUSANDS
STARS UNDER ALMOST PERFECT CONDITIONS (LOW POLLUTION, NO CLOUDS, NO
MOUNTAINS, ETC.). THINK ABOUT HOW MANY STARS YOU SEE WHEN YOU LOOK
UP, AND THEN LOOK AT THIS PHOTO TAKEN WITH A RELATIVELY AFFORDABLE
CAMERA. IM SURE YOUR EYES DO NOT COME ANYWHERE NEAR CLOSE TO SEEING
THAT MANY STARS AND DETAILS.
- 38. CAMERA : CANON 5D MODIFIED
- 39. THIS IS WHAT YOUR ROOM MAY LOOK LIKE TO YOUR EYES UNDER LOW
LIGHT CONDITIONS, ONCE YOUR EYES BECOME ADJUSTED. THIS IS WHAT IT
LOOKS LIKE TO ATHIS IS WHAT IT LOOKS LIKE TO A SMALLSMALL $2.5
THOUSAND$2.5 THOUSAND CAMERA,CAMERA, WHICH ISWHICH IS 8 TIMES8
TIMES MORE SENSITIVE THAN AMORE SENSITIVE THAN A HUMAN EYE.HUMAN
EYE. Actually, any night security camera is far better that the
human eye in low-light environments, not to mention that humans
see/sense only a tiny fraction of existing lightwaves, while
cameras and other devices can be designed to cover a huge range of
such frequencies (perhaps all of them when combined), including
infrared which allows you to see in complete darkness, since it
senses the heat emitted by individual elements of the world
(creatures, rocks, etc.).
- 40. Have you ever tried to catch a fly with your hand? If so,
you probably recognize that its very difficult to do, and thats
because a fly sees in a different way than you see. A fly can see
10 times faster than humans. WHEN YOU WATCH A MOVIE, YOU TYPICALLY
EXPERIENCE 30 PHOTOS (FRAMES) PER SECOND, WHILE YOUR EYES AND BRAIN
INTERPRET THAT AS CONTINUAL MOVEMENT (A MOVIE). A FLY WOULD NOT
ENJOY SUCH A MOVIE BECAUSE IT NEEDS AROUND 300 FRAMES PER SECOND TO
SEE IT AS A MOVIE, RATHER THAN A PHOTO
- 41. IF 300 FRAMES PER SECOND SEEMSIF 300 FRAMES PER SECOND
SEEMS LIKE A LOT, THERE IS NOW A CAMERALIKE A LOT, THERE IS NOW A
CAMERA THAT CAPTURESTHAT CAPTURES 100 BILLION100 BILLION
FRAMESFRAMES PER SECONDPER SECOND. THINK ABOUT THAT!. THINK ABOUT
THAT!
- 42. So, would you prefer to hire a human being for his visual
abilities? Can a human still be a better security guard than modern
day technologies? Or maybe better at observing any kind of event
and be better able to spot relevant information out of what he
sees? Of course not. Human vision may have been the greatest tool
on the planet 100 years ago, but with the advent of photo/video
cameras and other devices that can capture different light
wavelengths, and at much higher resolution & speed, human
vision has become completely surpassed for this kind of duty. But
still, humans are better at recognizing objects and situations,
right? Well, yes. They are still better at differentiating between
cats and mice, types of cars, maybe even faces and other such
objects/ shapes - or are they? SO, LETS LOOK AT THE BRAIN
>>
- 43. BRAIN AND CREATIVITY Our brains are fantastic. No other
creature has a brain that can match our capabilities. However, we
are already surpassed by computers in many areas where the human
brain had reigned supreme in the past. In school, we are told to
memorize information, however the internet stores far more than a
brain can. When was the last time you searched for something on
google? Why didnt you search inside your brain? Its because you
simply dont know most things. Let me emphasize that again, most of
the information and knowledge that is discovered through science,
you and I are not at all aware of. That is simply because it is far
too much information for anyone to retain and recall. Long gone are
the days when any advanced human society relies on people to retain
information for a particular job. Or at least those days should be
long gone, as only an obsolete system may still require such
skills.
- 44. How long does it take you to read an average-sized book? A
couple of days maybe? What if the book had 10 billion pages? Even
if you read 1000 pages a day (which is insane), it will take you 10
million days to finish the book. Thats around 27 thousand years of
continuous reading. You would have had to start back at a time when
there were no or few humans in North and South America in order to
finish that book today. THE IBM WATSON COMPUTER CAN DO THAT IN 43
MINUTES. NOT ONLY CAN THIS COMPUTER SCAN 10 BILLION FILES IN 43
MINUTES, BUT EVEN DRAW POWERFUL CONCLUSIONS FROM THEIR CONTENTS TO
HELP WITH DIAGNOSING DISEASES, UNDERSTAND NATURAL LANGUAGE, AND
EVEN COME UP WITH UNIQUE RECIPES.(SOURCE)
- 45. IMAGINE THE ENTIRE POPULATION OF AUSTRALIA, EVERY SINGLE
PERSON LIVING THERE, HAVING A 100GB HARD DRIVE FULL OF DATA. THAT
IS HOW MUCH NEW DATA IS PRODUCED EVERY DAY. That is the key for how
smart computers have become: big data. The type of computing that
can mine all of this data is called cognitive computing. Many
consider what we are experiencing with cognitive computing as a new
era in computers. The trend with computers today is the big data
that it is gathered daily. From smart health tracking devices to
facebook posts, youtube videos, blogs, security cameras, and smart
fridges, a huge amount of data is created every day. So huge that
if you add a 100gb hard drive to your computer, you would need 25
million more of them to store all of the data that it is produced
in a single day.(source)
- 46. 1900 First came mechanical systems that counted things
(1900). Those machines evolved into electro- mechanical devices
over time. 1950 2011 However, many experts claim that in 2011,
another switch happened and we are now in the embryonic phase of
it; an era where computers actually learn, becoming smarter with
time. The interesting thing about this new kind of computing is
that it learns like a human being, through examples and
repetitions. And the more data you feed into it and the more you
allow it to learn, the smarter it becomes. There is nothing magical
about this, since its basically following a bunch of statistics and
rules, coupled with the ability to understand natural language.
These computers read, literally, billions of documents, looking for
patterns to highlight. In 1950, there was a major shift where these
types of systems switched over to programmable systems, the ones
that we still use now. You program these machines to do tasks (like
apps on your smartphone), and they do them.
- 47. The only way to adequately explain these new computer
systems is to give you an example: Lets say you want to book a trip
to a place where the temperature is not too hot, but not too cold.
You want the trip to occur in 2 months time. You want the hotel to
have a swimming pool, sushi in the menu, and youll bring your wife
and 2 kids with you. You also want to do scuba diving to see some
coral reefs while youre there, and the kids want to enjoy a
rollercoaster ride. For the sake of providing a present-day example
where we use money for barter, you also have a budget in mind for
your trip. In todays world, how would you go about trying to find
such a location? Maybe you could start by asking people around you,
although they know very little about the world and such places, or
hunting through many holiday-planner websites where you can select
certain keywords and categories, but not come anywhere near as
specific as what you have in mind for this trip. Now here comes
cognitive computing with an IBM Watson-like app, where all you need
to do is to say, using natural language, what you want from the
trip, as exemplified above. The app searches through wikipedia,
facebook and twitter posts, tripadvisor websites, and other digital
sources, interprets the data in a comprehensive way, and finds the
perfect location for your holiday. Its as simple as that. You can
apply the same approach for finding a diagnosis for your symptoms,
learn about anything you want to, or just ask any kind of question
to be provided with relevant advice. THESE SYSTEMS ARE ALREADY
TESTED AND FUNCTIONAL, BUT NOT YET WIDELY AVAILABLE FOR PUBLIC
USE.
- 48. Understanding natural human language (how we speak) is the
key for fast development of such computers, as natural language is
the main source of unstructured information. 80% of the 25 million
100gb hard drives worth of data that is produced daily is in the
form of this kind of untapped and unstructured data.(source) As the
original inventor of the software behind the IBM Watson computer
pointed out in this TED talk, even though the software has not
changed much over the past several years, the big change has been
in the data that the software can tap into. The more data it is
provided, the more associations and connections it can make,
resulting in better statistics. Computers can now understand
natural human written language and even translate it from one
language to another or recognize human speech. And while they are
not perfect, the rate at which they continually improve is
phenomenally quick. AT PRESENT, THEY ARE AT JUST 1% ACCURACY IN
RECOGNIZING OBJECTS FROM PHOTOS WHEN COMPARED AGAINST EXPERTS, AND
AT OVER 97% ACCURACY AT RECOGNIZING HUMAN FACES (BETTER THAN
HUMANS). There are computers today with millions of nodes and
billions of connections, although the human brain has billions of
nodes and trillions of connections. However, based on Moore's law
(the observation that the number of transistors in a dense
integrated circuit doubles approximately every two years - and we
have been experiencing that for decades), we will reach the human
brains capacity of nodes and connections within just 25 more years.
You and I, if you are not too old :) and dont get hit by a car and
die, will still be alive to take advantage of this huge
computational power. Learn more about the Watson computer and its
amazing present day capabilities in this talk.
- 49. ONE ON ONE
- 50. Hands down, machines beat humans at so many levels when it
comes to memory, decision making, or face recognition (and its
getting close for object recognition). It still has difficulties
with translation and speech recognition, however, they are
literally getting better at those every single day. Computers can
also write stories and news articles (in a very quick and accurate
manner), compose songs, poetry, or even paint. Keep in mind that
when a human writes, he uses his pointy tentacles (fingers) to
physically push some buttons on a keyboard, or to press the point
of a stick while dragging it across a piece of paper. A machine
needs none of that. IF: from vision to hearing and odor (and other)
sensing; from strength and durability to speed, mobility, decision
making and voice recognition/translation/replication; memory and
data mining; robots/ machines/computers/software is/are already
better or close to human capabilities, THEN what jobs are left for
humans since these machines can drive, be doctors or assistants, in
perhaps any domain, function as managers, and can create unique
recipes, songs, or articles; build things, maintain them, and make
new, important discoveries faster than all of humanity combined?
ITS NOW EASIER TO THINK OF WHAT HUMANS ARE STILL BETTER AT
HANDLING, MEANING WHAT JOBS CANT BE REPLACED THUS FAR, THAN TO
THINK OF WHAT JOBS CAN BE REPLACED. There are still some domains
where humans are better than robots, and these domains tend to not
be jobs in todays world, which is a positive note. Humans seem to
be very good at interacting with other humans: providing moral
support, teaching, being creative and inventing new things. Even
though robots are starting to become good at reading human
emotions, making discoveries on their own out of big data and in
lab research, replacing teachers interaction with children, or even
at the art of debate, we are far from becoming useless creatures.
THE TECHNOLOGY IS LIKE A PIANO, AND WE ARE THE ONES MAKING THE
MUSIC. JOBS ARE AN OUTDATED IDEAL, OVERLY OBSOLETE OVER THE PAST 50
YEARS, BUT WORK IS SOMETHING DIFFERENT.
- 51. While the use of sophisticated computer systems will surely
continue to expand in controlling complex systems like
transportation or production, mining big data to arrive at better
decisions, discovering new things (from medical treatments to
perhaps important mathematical formulas), composing original work
(from documentary scripts to music), and more, we humans are the
ones for whom all of this is made, and we will be part of it
(discovering right alongside them, creating and innovating,
enjoying and educating). We are still the only ones who can look at
all this and inject meaning. No robot will look at the stars and be
in awe, asking what is its place in the universe, at least not for
many years to come (or maybe never). No robot will fight for
creating an equal society for all or for taking better care of the
environment.
- 52. COMPUTERS, ROBOTS,COMPUTERS, ROBOTS, DEVICES, AND MACHINES
AREDEVICES, AND MACHINES ARE TOOLS,TOOLS, OUR TOOLS, AND WE NEED
TOOUR TOOLS, AND WE NEED TO TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THEIRTAKE ADVANTAGE
OF THEIR ABILITIES WITHOUT BEINGABILITIES WITHOUT BEING
- 53. Four to five years ago, you could barely find peopleFour to
five years ago, you could barely find people talking about robots
replacing jobs. Today, it looks liketalking about robots replacing
jobs. Today, it looks like this has become a major concern for many
peoplethis has become a major concern for many people around the
world. Fromaround the world. From Bill GatesBill Gates toto
GoogleGoogle,, JeremyJeremy RifkinRifkin toto M.I.T.
professorsM.I.T. professors,, Peter DiamandisPeter Diamandis and
welland well knownknown YoutubersYoutubers, or thousands of
various, or thousands of various news titlesnews titles,, the world
may finally be recognizing that we, asthe world may finally be
recognizing that we, as humans, have been surpassed on so many
levels byhumans, have been surpassed on so many levels by machinery
that is massively more efficient and bettermachinery that is
massively more efficient and better designed for these jobs and, as
a result, we must thinkdesigned for these jobs and, as a result, we
must think of a different way of organizing a global society thatof
a different way of organizing a global society that still relies
completely on human labor (jobs), just sostill relies completely on
human labor (jobs), just so that people can afford to live and so
that the peoplethat people can afford to live and so that the
people benefitting most from the current approaches can
keepbenefitting most from the current approaches can keep on living
better than the rest.on living better than the rest. The only thing
I am afraid of is that there seems to beThe only thing I am afraid
of is that there seems to be no real alternatives in any of these
peoples minds, asno real alternatives in any of these peoples
minds, as they seem to not think about the bigger picture andthey
seem to not think about the bigger picture and thus, they continue
to try to solve new problems withthus, they continue to try to
solve new problems with the same old, outdated tools and solutions
thatthe same old, outdated tools and solutions that created the
problems, perhaps eventually resulting increated the problems,
perhaps eventually resulting in a total chaos.a total chaos.
- 54. WE HUMANS ARE NOT BECOMINGWE HUMANS ARE NOT BECOMING
OBSOLETE CREATURES.OBSOLETE CREATURES. ITITS JUST THATS JUST THAT
ITITS ABOUT TIME THAT WE STARTS ABOUT TIME THAT WE START LEARNING
HOW TO BE FULLY HUMAN,LEARNING HOW TO BE FULLY HUMAN, SINCE FOR
MOST OF RECORDED HUMANSINCE FOR MOST OF RECORDED HUMAN HISTORY, WE
HAVE BEEN DOINGHISTORY, WE HAVE BEEN DOING REPETITIVE MACHINE-LIKE
TASKS.REPETITIVE MACHINE-LIKE TASKS. We must try our best to make
The Venus Project moreWe must try our best to make The Venus
Project more visible, because we are already in the midst of a
massivevisible, because we are already in the midst of a massive
change, a technological one, that is racing toward us verychange, a
technological one, that is racing toward us very quickly, no matter
what laws, peoples beliefs, tribalquickly, no matter what laws,
peoples beliefs, tribal separation or opinions may exist, and it
seems that theseparation or opinions may exist, and it seems that
the world is still very much unaware of any sustainableworld is
still very much unaware of any sustainable solution as
all-encompassing as The Venus Project.solution as all-encompassing
as The Venus Project.
- 55. PART HUMAN, PART MACHINE: REPLACEMENTS
- 56. In the first part of this TVPM special edition, we compared
humans with machines in order to weigh which one sees better, is
stronger, faster, more reliable, and overall better at handling
jobs that people are required to do within todays monetary system.
We did that to highlight just how easily many humans could already
be freed-up from boring and repetitive jobs that machines are much
better equipped to manage, allowing those humans to instead use
their brain to discover, enjoy, relax and improve (their lives,
society, etc.). In this part we will look at how humans use
machine-like devices to replace many of their organs and body
functions. This is a vitally important field to understand, as
these mechanical alternatives often mean the difference between
life and death, while they are also more resilient and performance
enhancing, providing their recipients with better health, along
with providing a solution for organ donor scarcity. WHAT ORGANIC
HUMAN BODY PARTS CAN WE REPLACE WITH MECHANICAL ONES THAT CAN
RENDER A BETTER OUTCOME, FROM PERFORMANCE TO DURABILITY? Lets go
from toes-to-head, looking closely at legs, stomach and heart, eyes
and nose, and everything in between. Keep in mind that we will only
be focusing on non-biological body part replacements here, as we
will tackle biological enhancements and replacements in another
article later in this series.
- 57. LIMBS AND MOVEMENT In order for us humans to walk, we need
healthy bones, lots of muscles, strength, coordination and
flexibility. To mimic what a leg does, as well as how it
communicates with the brain and the rest of the body, turns out to
be quite a challenge. Multiple 3D-printed prostheses have been
developed recently and, although they represent a very cheap (in
terms of energy and materials) means to quickly replace a missing
limb, they are not nearly as advanced as a mechanical prosthesis,
because mechanical limbs allow for much more flexibility and
adaptability for movement. One such mechanical leg is Genium X3. It
is waterproof, the battery last 5 days and, more importantly, it
detects pressure and its position in space, adapting to different
kinds of movements: from riding a bike, running, driving, or even
swimming.
- 58. Such mechanical legs can even be jointed at the hip via a
3D Hip Joint System that results in a three- dimensional hip
movement to compensate for pelvic rotation. The result is a
symmetrical, natural walking pattern. Watch this video demo to see
it in action - Thus, the leg becomes complete from the hip, while
also serving more capabilities than a normal prosthesis as it acts
as a shock absorber, adapts to uneven terrain, provides a smooth
rollover from heel to toe, and even allows for multi-axial motion
(which means even more mobility and comfort), plus the materials
its made from give it a spring to your step, meaning that it
compresses when you apply weight and propels you forward as your
foot rolls.(source)
- 59. Some mechanical lower limbs, like BIOM, are now able to
communicate directly with ones biology to adapt its movements (it
can connect directly to nerves to understand how the person wishes
to move). This is a huge step towards properly integrating these
mechanical devices to a humans biology with a more natural
connectivity. Imagine wearing a stiff, non-mechanical leg. How hard
would it be to move around? Keep in mind that you need to feel the
pressure on your artificial leg to walk smoothly, you need to have
the flexibility of movement to avoid tripping or to change the
direction of your walking, and so on.
- 60. Todays mechanical legs can understand how you move and
respond accordingly, allowing people without legs to do nearly
anything that a natural legged person can do.
- 61. As an example, there are people with movement handicaps
(missing limbs for instance) that can participate in physically
intensive sports at a high level of performance.(source 1, 2)
- 62. As a side note, mechanical legs can be coated with a
silicon covering to look almost identical to real legs, as shown in
this video
- 63. EKSO
- 64. In addition to helping those with missing legs, these
machines are also helping those that suffer from paralysis.
Exoskeletons are already in use for such cases. The exoskeleton
senses the wearers body position, and balance points, triggering
movement according to these inputs and, thus, allowing people who
otherwise cannot move to walk again. This technology is still in
its early stages, so it is more of a prototype, but will improve
significantly over a very short period of time, as most
technologies do these days.(source) Todays mechanical arms use
similar technologies to provide for control and connect to the
human body. Sensors detect muscle movement and tension, or are
connected directly to nerves, and that feedback is translated into
the robotic arms movement. One extraordinary example is a man who
can control two mechanical arms and shoulders, through multiple
sensors from the mechanical arms to different nerves on his body.
Even though the arms / shoulders are very complex and able for
different kinds of motions, the control system development is still
in its early stages, so its slow and very simple.(source)
- 65. You see, when these mechanical prostheses are attached to
the body, the body needs to have well-functioning muscles or nerves
to communicate with them. The brain sends commands to the muscles
and nerves, and they, in turn, activate the mechanism of the arm
(or leg, or other devices). If those muscles and nerves are also
damaged, then it becomes more difficult to find a solution,
although nerve and muscle transplants from a different part of the
body are now possible, too.(source)
- 66. However a new kind of connectivity between mechanical
devices and the human body is increasingly being tested: a direct
connection of such devices with the brain, fully bypassing other
parts of the body. To put it simply, this technology is basically
reading brain patterns, and then associating them with the
movements of a mechanical limb. So, if you imagine picking up a cup
and putting it on a shelf, and then repeat this a couple of times,
this technology can directly analyze your brains activity, learn
your specific brain patterns for that kind of movement, and then
translate them into physical movements of the robotic arm.(source)
Imagine the same technology being applied to exoskeletons,
mechanical legs, or even used for controlling wheelchairs, driving,
and many other devices. Thus, with only the power of the mind, its
now becoming possible for people to control different kinds of
devices that allow them to move, reach, grasp, etc..
- 67. Another fascinating compliment to this field is artificial
muscles. These are basically pneumatic bladders, precisely
controlled by air flow, that bring more flexible and natural
movement to mechanical limbs. We did an entire article on
artificial muscles a while back, which you can read here, but check
out TVPMs video playlist showcasing its use in limbs to see how
natural movements become when assisted by this technology.
- 68. While these technologies are generally used to replace
missing limbs, they can also enhance performance of existing limbs
to ease movement, and improve strength and performance. Imagine
similar devices that may help you walk farther distances, climb
under more difficult conditions, or to control devices from a
distance with your brain. Alongside 3D printing, limbs are becoming
more easily replaced with mechanical alternatives, and with further
advancement in software and materials, mechanical movement will
become more natural, and simply a matter of thinking about it.
- 69. Although we cant call these mechanical, we should mention
that there are already many procedures that allow for joint
replacements (hips, knee, shoulder, disc) or bone replacements with
varying material alternatives than biological structures. JOINTS
AND BONES
- 70. The first 3D-printed skull, lower jaw, upper jaw or parts
of the skull, and pelvis, each made of strong materials, have
already been transplanted to some patients. These examples are just
a sampling, but there may already be mechanical, non-biological
alternatives for all joint and bone replacement needs.
- 71. KIDNEY Your kidneys main function is to act as a filtration
system for your blood; removing toxins from your body by
transferring them to the bladder, where they are later evacuated
from the body during urination. Kidney failure occurs when the
kidneys lose the ability to sufficiently filter waste from the
blood. Many factors can interfere with kidney health and function,
such as toxic exposure to environmental pollutants and chemical
food preservatives, certain diseases and ailments, and physical
kidney damage. If your kidneys cannot manage their task, your body
becomes overloaded with toxins. Left untreated, this can lead to
kidney failure and may result in death.(source) ORGANS To replace
the functionality of a biological organ with a mechanical device is
far more complex and sophisticated than replacing limbs, since
organ functionality often means the difference between life and
death. One can live without legs and arms, but not without a heart
or a liver.
- 72. People can live without one kidney, but not without both.
Over one million people die from kidney failure every year, while
around 1.4 million are currently helped by an artificial kidney
called a dialysis machine.(source) However, that also means keeping
the patient connected to a huge machine without the ability to move
or have a normal life. But now, a cup-of-coffee sized device has
been invented and is nearly ready to be tested in patients. It is
designed to last for the life of the recipient and should be ready
for trial in 2017.(source 1, 2) Another small implantable
artificial kidney is set to be tested in human trials in 5 - 6
years, according to this company. There are other mechanical
replacements for kidneys that are not as small, but have already
shown success in their first clinical trials. These are not
designed for implant, but for wearing them on a belt, allowing
patients much more mobility and a more normal life compared to
dialysis.(source) A mechanical replacement for kidney function has
been available for many years. The challenge now is to make it
smaller and smaller.
- 73. LIVER Nearly all of the good stuff in what you eat and
drink eventually passes through your liver, an organ that performs
over 500 different functions. Although the liver is the only human
organ that can fully regenerate from as little of 25% of it,
incidences of liver failure can still occur. One interesting fact
is that because the liver performs many complex functions in and
for the body, there is no properly tested mechanical device to
replace its functions, at least so far. Although clinical trials
have already begun for such devices, their potential is yet to be
confirmed.(source) However, these devices make use of actual liver
cells contained within devices that are externally connected to the
human body to achieve liver functions, so it may be more accurate
to regard these as biological devices, rather than mechanical
ones.
- 74. PANCREAS The pancreas main function is the production of
insulin, which then control the levels of glucose (sugars) in the
blood. When this fails (Type 1) or becomes reduced (Type 2), there
is more glucose in the bloodstream than normal, and the result is a
serious condition known as diabetes. All Type 1 and some Type 2
diabetes cases require insulin intake, affecting 371 million people
worldwide, and that number is expected to rise to 552 million by
2030. Although humans can live without a pancreas, they must take
insulin and pills that contain digestive enzymes for the rest of
their lives in order to survive that.(source) There is a new
mechanical device designed to control the distribution of synthetic
insulin in an automated way, and it looks very promising after the
first clinical trial, keeping subjects within a safe blood glucose
range for 80 percent or more of the time.(source) But there is also
one device that has no mechanical parts, using a gel that isolates
a reservoir of insulin. The gel hardens and softens in real-time
response to fluctuating glucose levels within the body, allowing
insulin to be released from the reservoir precisely when needed.
Human trials of this pump are due to commence in 2016.(source)
- 75. DIGESTIVE Can we replace the human stomach, small intestine
and large intestine (basically most of the digestive system) with a
mechanical one? Not really, but there are mechanical models of the
human digestive system which mimic the real thing quite well. In
order for you to digest food, there is a series of events that have
to take place: from the saliva that mixes up with the food,
mastication (chewing into smaller bits) and muscular contractions
(moving it from one place to another), to the stomachs acid and
bacteria in the gut (intestines), and eventually, the
transportation of good stuff from the broken-down food into the
bloodstream. There are a few teams of engineers around the world
that have built mechanical models of the entire digestive system.
These are generally used for drug testing, and more, but there is
also a robot that can actually digest food and extract energy from
it for mechanical movement. It does that with the help of bacteria
and before it suffered a non-related mechanical problem, it was
able to survive for 7 continuous days by collecting and digesting
food.(source)
- 76. Could such a system be used in humans to replace their
entire digestive system? I doubt it, but the interesting fact about
humans is that they can basically survive without any parts of the
digestive system except the small intestine, and even the small
intestine is still functional at about 19% of its total length. You
would have to be fed intravenously if you had no functional small
intestine.(source) So far, there is no mechanical alternative for
the human digestive system, but perhaps other non-mechanical and
biological alternatives exist, as we will discuss in an upcoming
article on enhancing human biology. ECOBOT III
- 77. LUNGS The function of the lungs is to transport molecules
that are good for us (oxygen) from the atmosphere to the blood, and
take the bad molecules (carbon dioxide) from our bloodstream and
exhale them out into the atmosphere. You can live with just one
lung, and without both for about 30 seconds. That is a dark joke,
but do not despair. There are machines that can keep you alive even
if both of your lungs fail. Lung diseases are the third leading
cause of death, with over 3 million deaths a year and over 329
million people affected by various lung diseases worldwide.(source)
There are several technologies that can replace some of the lungs
functions for a short period of time: hours or days, in cases of
some particular surgeries where the patients lungs are not
functional, or for a period of months for patients waiting for a
lung transplant.(source) These are usually big, external machines
that are only efficient when they are properly monitored and the
patient is connected to them in a hospital. The most time that
anyone has lived with such an artificial lung was for 5
months.(source) So how about a real replacement for the lung; one
that is small and can do the job without the patient being
immobilized to a bed? There are several prototypes already.
- 78. One is called Biolung, which is a soda-can sized device
that uses heart power to pump blood into its chamber where oxygen
and carbon dioxide are exchanged across a plastic membrane. The
oxygen-rich blood then returns to the body. The device is designed
for implant and has no moving parts. Biolung has been tested in
sheep, resulting in better survival rates and less lung injury than
a conventional ventilator. It is expected to be tested in humans
about 2 years from now.(source) This device isnt designed for long
term use, however. Its only intended for a couple of months use by
patients awaiting a lung transplant, but it is an important piece
of technology due to its small size and ability to be implanted
within the patient. Another team is working on a years-long
solution for mechanical device lung replacement. Theyve been
working on this device for the past 20 years and have recently
received a four-year, $2.4 million grant from the National
Institutes of Health (NIH) to support research and development for
the artificial lung. They say that such devices could be in use
within the next 5 - 10 years.(source) The downside, if there can be
one in a situation where your life depends on such a device, is
that while it allows for certain mobility and use from home (not
being hospitalized), this kind of device still has to be closely
monitored by doctors and is still unable to support the mobility
one has with biological lungs. AmbuLung is designed with all of
these flaws in mind and the team behind it want to create a fully
functional lung that allows normal mobility for patients over
long-term use. They started the project in 2012, and animal trials
should be concluded by June of this year. If all goes well, human
trials will begin shortly after that. However, theyre not just
using mechanical parts for this. To achieve this performance on
such a small implantable scale, they also employ living cells
within a design that is mechanically and mathematically driven for
optimizing the function of a new kind of device that, they say, may
completely revolutionize artificial lung functionality.
- 79. HEART The heart is the organ that pumps blood throughout
our body, providing the total organism with oxygen and nutrients,
while also assisting with the removal of metabolic wastes -
substances left over from excretory processes which cannot be used
by the organism (they are surplus or have lethal effect), and must
therefore be excreted. This includes nitrogen compounds, excess
water, CO2, phosphates, sulfates, etc.). As with any other organ,
the heart comes with a predisposition for harmful mutations. When
genetic errors occur, a human can be born with a non- standard
heart structure; one that can result in either the death of the
human or a variety of issues that the human must deal with for the
rest of her/his life. Environmental factors, such as various
diseases or certain drugs that the mother has/takes, have been
shown to correlate with numerous heart structure errors. Even with
a good heart, multiple issues can later arise with this organ.
These issues are so numerous and impactful that the number one
cause of death in the world is heart failure. It kills more than
17.3 million people every year. Lucky for us, there are several
artificial hearts out there that have already proven to not only
completely replace the hearts functions for a particular period of
time, but there have been continuous steady improvements in
artificial heart designs, providing better results over
increasingly shorter periods of time.
- 80. Over the past 45 years, around 1,400 artificial hearts of
13 different designs have been implanted in heart failure patients.
By far, the most used model is SynCardia, with over 96% of the
total models used. Artificial hearts are mainly designed to be used
as a temporary alternative until a real heart becomes available for
transplantation. The longest period that anyone has lived with an
artificial heart was four years. One-third of those who currently
use SynCardia have had it for more than a year. There are people
with artificial hearts who enjoy boxing, hiking, and other sports;
living a relatively normal life, but often a more active one than
those with a real heart.(source) BiVACOR was developed by a team of
doctors and engineers and, so far, has been successfully tested on
sheep and cows. They are now raising money toward improvements and
future clinical trials on humans. The device could be ready for
humans in 3 - 5 years.(source 1, 2) BiVACOR and SynCardia both
require the recipient to carry a battery pack that is currently
about of the size of a toaster, but it pretty much provides them
with all of the freedom of movement that a normal heart does. A new
type of artificial heart has been specifically engineered for
long-term use (5 - 10 years or more) or, given enough improvements,
perhaps even permanent replacement. BiVACOR is a small artificial
heart designed to completely replace all biological heart
functions. Since its as small as a fist, it can also be used in
children. It has a single moving part and relies on magnetic
levitation for precision, avoiding mechanical wear over time. Due
to its simplicity, it is much less prone to malfunctions.
- 81. The spleen is another organ that humans can live without,
as the liver would take over many of its functions. However, the
body would then lose some of its ability to fight
infections.(source) The spleens function is to keep the blood clean
of toxins. A mechanical device can do this today, as its able to
provide the basic functionalities that a spleen provides to the
body by eliminating the vast majority of infectious bugs from blood
(bacteria and fungi). It can clean all of your blood in about 5
hours, although its not a portable device and you would need to be
hospitalized for the duration of the procedure. But dont forget,
you can live without a spleen.(source) SPLEEN
- 82. SMALLER AND DISPOSABLE ORGANS As you can see, nearly all
the main organs can be substituted with mechanical alternatives.
However, there are still parts like the reproductive system, skin,
arterial and venous systems, and other smaller items that are not
yet replaceable by non-biological mechanical devices. That may be
due to there being much less need for it, since these are not
normally life-threatening parts or because there are already plenty
of treatments, cures, or other biological enhancements available
for those parts. To be fair, there are artificial valves,
artificial veins for use in bypass situations, and other small
plumbing fixes with other materials and small mechanisms, but I do
not see the advantage in trying to list all of them here, as there
are so many types of procedures and alternatives.
- 83. MOUTH AND NOSE Is there a way to replace the mouth with a
mechanical one? One that can chew, talk, swallow? The mouth is more
than that, though, as it communicates with the nose, it has a
tongue, produces saliva, and is all about muscles, jaws and air
flow. It may be completely unreasonable to think of the mouth as a
separate part of the body that could be fully replaced with a
mechanical or a biological alternative, but as you saw above, parts
of the cranium can already be printed using various non-biological
materials and implanted, while artificial teeth have existed for
many decades now. The trachea and esophagus, crucial for breathing
and swallowing food and liquid, along with other small parts of the
throat, are already in development for biological alternatives,.
and we will talk about those in a separated article about
bio-engineering. However, there are mechanical alternatives for
some of the functions of the larynx, a crucial part of the throat
involved in breathing, sound production, and protecting the trachea
against food aspiration.
- 84. In patients with larynx cancer, the entire larynx can be
removed and, with the help of a device implanted in their throat,
the persons ability to speak can be restored. You see, when the
larynx is removed, the vocal cords (voice box) are also removed
with it. We talk by vibrating our vocal cords while exhaling air
through them. The resulting sound is then fine-tuned by tongue, lip
and jaw movements, resulting in sound vibrations that we interpret
as speech. This voice restoration device is basically a vibrating
piece of silicon that replaces the voice box There are a few
alternatives out there for vocal cord replacement, as showcased in
these 3 videos. Mechanical alternatives for the nose and tongue,
organs that provide our smell and taste sensors, are being
developed, but as a combination of biological and mechanical parts.
In addition, they are not being designed to replace biological
human noses or tongues, but rather for other bio-sensor
applications. There are already various treatments and biological
solutions for restoring the loss of these senses, while these
device designs are far more sensitive and better suited to
applications other than human body implementation, which may never
be done due to better bio-engineering alternatives for enhancing
ones senses.
- 85. EARS Although external hearing aids (sound amplifiers) have
been available for decades, there are newer devices called cochlear
implants that can actually restore hearing to a certain degree,
even in some completely deaf people. What this means is that, even
if the internal ear has become damaged or nonfunctional, hearing
can still be revived by implanting this digital device, which then
communicates directly with the auditory nerve, the only biological
component that it needs to be intact. internal ear
- 86. There are a variety of cochlear implant devices available,
allowing people renewed access to medium to higher frequency
sounds.(source) The device converts sound from outside to a digital
format, and then transforms this digital data into specific
stimulations to the auditory nerve which we humans interpret as
hearing.
- 87. EYES AND THE BRAIN Perhaps the sense we rely on most is
sight. When sight goes dark, it completely changes the lifestyle of
that human being. Is it possible to replace our eyes with
mechanical ones? The challenge with replacing such a complex organ
with a mechanical device is huge. I want to try to fully explain
why, or else you may not fully appreciate the challenges of
developing a device for vision or, more interestingly, alternatives
for such a device that may instead rely on sound or taste.
- 88. COLOR AND INTERPRETATION. There are 3 types of biological
receptors within your eye that are suited to detecting only 3
particular light wavelengths: red, blue and green. That comprises
all of the light wavelengths we humans can directly detect - no
more, no less - only 3! So how is it that we can see so many
colors? Well, colors dont actually exist, per se. Color is to light
wavelengths what sound is to vibrations.
- 89. SOUND Vibrations from a source can travel through a medium,
such as air or water, and can be felt by someone or something. When
someone vibrates their vocal cords, through air, and the vibrations
reach our ears, we culturally interpret those vibrations as certain
sounds (we might describe it as speech, music, rhymes, pleasant or
not, etc.). But those same vibrations, from the same object and
through the same medium, can be interpreted in other ways that you
may never have considered before. One example of this is schlieren
imaging. This method allows for auditory vibrations to be
visualized with photons, similar to how we see light wavelengths.
Vibration waves are not heard, but instead visualised. If one claps
his hands, you will hear the clap, but someone else can visualise
it with a schlieren device. Same event, same vibrations, different
sensors - different interpretations.
- 90. COLOR The same thing goes for how we see. First, check out
this short, animated video, because I see no way to explain this
further without its help. ;) - So, colors are human concepts/words
to describe how we humans perceive different light wavelengths,
because wavelengths of light can be sensed in many different ways,
with many different sensors/ senses and devices. Example: heres a
photo. You and I see a green landfill, but there is at least one
human who sees in grey and hears this. There is no green for
him.
- 91. Why? Because some of his biological sensors are different
and he cant interpret light wavelengths as color. Instead, he has a
chip implanted in the back of his head with a digital sensor that
converts light waves into sounds that he can hear. He hears light
waves as you see them. Again, same photo, same light waves,
different sensors - different interpretations. You interpret them
as green, while he hears that sound. He cannot understand what you
mean by color. For him, the way one dresses sounds, not appears.
Watch this TED video with him explaining all this - An Android app
has been developed to allow you to experience, in a way, what this
guy experiences when he sees the world. The app uses your phones
camera, converting the colors it sees into sounds.
- 92. In this sense, you cannot explain to a blind person what
color is, any more than explaining to a deaf person what music is,
or any more than trying to understand what its like to feel the
magnetic field of the earth for us, the normal ones. You can draw
the planets magnetic field to represent it as a visual map, but
thats like drawing sound waves for a deaf person and expecting them
to understand how those soundwaves feel, or asking a deaf person to
look at sheet music and understand the song as you hear it. So dont
be fooled into thinking that staring at a map of Earths magnetic
field will help you understand how the field feels to a bird that
readily detects it. We may never be able to help blind people see
the world as we do, because we all see the world in different ways,
while being blind for a long period of time and then suddenly
detecting light waves would produce a different kind of
interpretation for the brain. This applies similarly to the sense
of hearing or taste/smell, as well, since a life-long deaf person
who gains the hearing sense will not understand language by its
sounds. He/she will not be able to talk on the phone right away,
because he/she first needs to learn how to associate these noises
that we are so familiar with, the spoken language, with the sign
language and lip reading that they were accustomed to before. So,
to create a replica of the eye, you first must understand that the
brain is doing most of the work when it comes to seeing. Once you
do, you can invent devices that see via sound or other means, as I
will exemplify.
- 93. TRYING TO REPLICATE WHAT THE EYE DOES. Sensing lightwaves:
Different parts of the eye can become damaged, non-functional, so
different methods are needed for restoring sight. Imagine the
mechanism of sight as a complex set of sensors and wires, each
having its own function within the system. If one of these wires or
sensors stops working, there are mechanical solutions for replacing
at least some of their functionality to make the system work again.
As an example, if the light sensors inside your eye no longer work,
or are missing, but the entire system from them to the brain works,
then the challenge would be to replace these defective biological
sensors with a device that simulates their functionality by
connecting the light from outside with the rest of your biological
system. One way this is currently done is through a small video
camera that sees the world, and transmits wireless signals to a
small chip that replaces the light biological sensors. The video
camera basically communicates with the electronical device
implanted inside the eye, which then activates the rest of the
biological system for vision. There are limitations to this
approach, in that one basically sees variations of light and dark.
Its not as vivid as normal eyes see, and the person will need to
learn how to decode them to be able to use this new sight
sense.
- 94. This type of device worked in two-thirds of the blind
patients that participated in clinical trials, and some of the
patients who could finally see were even able to read
letters.(source) There are more examples of replacing various parts
of the visual system, and you can read about those in more detail
here and here. All of them produce, at most, a grey pixelated
image, providing a system for formerly blind humans to distinguish
between dark and light, with nuances in between. Its not close to
how biological eyes work, but is still quite remarkable,
considering how complex our vision sense is.
- 95. But what if you bypass the entire sight system and connect
devices directly to the brain? Well, this can be done, too. New
technologies can connect a video camera directly to electronical
devices implanted in the brain's visual cortex, enabling people to
see without any part of the biological system for sight. Clinical
trials for this technology are expected to begin in a year or
so.(source 1, 2) 4 3
- 96. 2 1 1. Outside Glasses - digital camera 2. Inside Glasses -
eye movement sensor will direct the camera 3. Side of Glasses -
digital processor and wireless transmitter 4. Brain Implant - small
implant under the skull will receive wireless signals and directly
stimulate the brain's visual cortex All of these lightwave
interpreting technologies are rather similar, in the sense that
they collect light waves and convert them into signals that the
brain interprets as light and dark regions, that can then be
learned to be differentiated into separated forms and shapes.
- 97. You can even see with your tongue, highlighting how seeing
is actually a process that the brain creates while being stimulated
by other organs, like the tongue in this case. With this
technology, a camera detects lightwaves and transforms them into an
electrical pattern that is sensed by the tongue through a device
that you need to keep inside your mouth. Although this device does
not connect with the visual part of your brain, it allows you to
convert lightwaves into patterns that you can feel, so you are
basically seeing with your tongue.(source)
- 98. Similarly, blind people can see with sound, not like the
guy who can differentiate colors with sound, but in a more complex
way, allowing blind people to interpret lightwaves via different
sound types. The way the sound is constructed, from tone to
duration, creates a sort of alphabet and a visual description of
the world. This sound alphabet is then used to convert what a video
camera sees into sounds that can be perceived and understood by the
blind. The process is complex and extremely interesting, as it was
shown how the people using this technology had the visual part of
their brains activated when they imagined the scene in front of
them. The technology works so well that blind people can even
distinguish facial emotions, as seen in this TED presentation - So,
the brain may be more of a task organ than a sensing one, and the
task of seeing is basically interpreting, in a particular way,
inputs from different organs, such as the tongue, ears, or a direct
connection of electronic sensors to the brain. When we go about
attempts to restore vision through mechanical devices, we must
understand why this is such a complex task and why there might be
other alternatives for seeing.
- 99. Many motor and sensory achievements of the brain can
already be fine tuned or restored, as we have seen how the brain
can see by being connected directly to an electronic device that
bypasses biological stimulation. A motor function example could be
Parkinson disease, in which people experience involuntary movements
that even make it difficult to walk. When implanted, thin pieces of
metal that release a tiny amount of energy into the brain can
basically get rid of Parkinsons specific involuntary movements, as
showcased in this short documentary - There are many brain implant
devices aimed at restoring normal body/brain functions, as you can
read in more detail on Wikipedia, but all of them are either
sensory or motor-related. However, there are other brain functions,
like the encoding of memory, that can be restored or repaired with
the help of electronic devices. This is a new field of prostheses
where the focus is on the brains cognitive functions (basically
thinking) with the aim of replacing damaged neurons with electrical
devices that can perform some of their tasks. There are only animal
trials, so far, for the technologies that I am going to highlight,
but they are worth mentioning as this may open completely new doors
as to how we can fix the brain, or even enhance its functions.
- 100. In 1953, a patient by the name of Henry Molaison underwent
a surgical procedure to alleviate epileptic seizures. The procedure
partially destroyed the part of his brain that we call hippocampus.
The result was reduced epileptic seizures, but something unexpected
also happened: Henry could no longer form long-term memories. As an
interesting fact, almost all brain functions were discovered by
similar situations, where people with a damaged brain exhibited
different symptoms or were impaired in different ways. I recommend
this BBC documentary that looks at the history of such random
discoveries. Thus, the Henry Molaisos life was basically destroyed
by the surgery, while it helped doctors better understand what that
part of the brain does. We now know that the hippocampus is the
first area of the brain that is affected in people with Alzheimers
disease, which makes people unable to form or retain long-term
memories, among other impairments.
- 101. The hippocampus is basically a bunch of neurons that, to
simplify it a lot, receive and transmit electronic signals from one
part of the brain to another. A team of scientists analyzed these
signals for years to develop computational models that can
understand and replicate what outputs the hippocampus sends out for
a particular input. Basically, if this series of letters and
numbers (34vfmf843) goes into the hippocampus, then this series
(99800uuioo) is the output, which the hippocampus transmits to
other parts of the brain. In that sense, they understood how to
decrypt and encrypt these signals so that, in theory, they could
build a tiny device that can take inputs and properly output them
further into the brains system, replacing what the parts of the
hippocampus once did. They started to experiment with living
neurons, and it worked. The tiny devices were able to replicate
parts of the hippocampus. They then went further and tested it in
mice. They trained the mice to press a lever for a reward, in a way
that the hippocampus was actively involved in performing the task.
They recorded the hippocampus activity and the signals it receives
and transmits. They then injected a drug into the mice to impair
some of their hippocampal function and, upon re-testing, observed
that the mice performed at only 50% of their former accuracy, which
is as good as random. However, when they implanted these tiny
devices into the mice brains to simulate their own hippocampus
functions while on the drug, the mice performed almost as well as
they had before receiving the drug. If you have the time, you can
read the entire study here. They repeated the study with monkeys,
this time for the prefrontal cortex area of the brain, and impaired
short memory functions in this region to then replace that
functionality with these tiny computational devices and observe the
same results as in the mice. The entire study can be read
here.
- 102. Although this has not been tested on humans yet, clinical
trials on humans are expected to begin soon. This approach is very
promising for dealing with diseases like Alzheimer's and other
memory-related diseases, as well as for providing significant
insight on how some of the brains functions work. We may eventually
learn how to replace many other damaged brain functions with
mechanical devices. How far will this go, I have no idea, but I
suppose no one does. Damaged Hippocampus Tissue Hippocampus Chip
Cross Section Through Hippocampus Rat Hippocampus
- 103. By replacing parts of the human body with mechanical
and/or electronic devices, we can not only significantly improve
the functionality of numerous human parts, but also reduce immense
pressures on current organ transplant systems where, instead of
relying on borrowing parts from other people (mostly dead ones),
which can be rejected by the recipients body, we are becoming
better able to substitute them with mechanical alternatives, thus
moving closer to satisfying the huge demand for replacement parts
by people suffering without them. One very important thing to
mention is that, even while these solutions exist and are readily
available, many people are still allowed to die within today's
monetary system, just because they cannot afford them. It still
requires a whole lot of silly pieces of paper to have your life
saved. I WONDER HOW OVERALL DEVELOPMENT OF THESE MECHANICAL
ALTERNATIVES FOR BODY PARTS WOULD INCREASE IN A WORLD WHERE
RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT IS NO LONGER IMPAIRED BY MONEY AND WHERE
THE PRIMARY DRIVE FOR PEOPLE EVOLVES INTO THE WELL-BEING OF HUMANS
AND THE ENVIRONMENT, AS ADVOCATED BY THE VENUS PROJECT.
- 104. PART HUMAN,PART HUMAN, PART MACHINEPART MACHINE::
ENHANCEMENTSENHANCEMENTS
- 105. -5 VISIBLE LIGHT 4 to 7x10 meter HEARING 10 to 20,000 Hz 3
CHEMOSENSE 10 odors In the first installment of "Part Human, Part
Machine", we discussed what mechanical replacements exist for the
human body. Here, we will look beyond the idea of fixing humans
with technology, by looking at extending their capabilities. Cell
phones, clothes, the internet, air conditioning, cars, buildings,
shoes, knifes, refrigerators, telescopes, microscopes, various uses
of nanotechnology, biotechnology, and all other fields of science
provide enhancements for us humans, as we become better able to see
farther and deeper, to analyze the worlds structures and forces
that we are not able to detect or measure with our senses, to
protect ourselves from harmful external and internal factors, and
more. TOUCH 3000 nm 0 HEAT SENSING 200 to 400 K MEMORY SPAN 70
years HEAT TOLERANCE 270 to 370 K LOCOMOTION 50 km/h OEAN DEPTH 75
meters 3 ALTITUDE 8x10 meters VOICE 300 to 3,500 Hz PAST
- 106. PRESENT -12 6 VISIBLE LIGHT 10 to 10 meter -9 12 HEARING
10 to 10 Hz CHEMOSENSE millions of compounds TOUCH 0.1 nm 5 0 HEAT
SENSING 3 to 10 K MEMORY SPAN 5000 years LOCOMOTION 26,720 km/h
OEAN DEPTH 10,912 meters 9 ALTITUDE 3x10 meters VOICE 10 to 20,00
Hz 3 0 HEAT TOLERANCE 3 to 10 K source
- 107. We highlighted many technologies in our AA WORLD series,
showing how we could make far better use of them than we do today,
but now we will focus on technologies that allow us to improve our
biological abilities, exceeding what our DNA coded for us. This
articles focus is specifically on machines that enhance our
existing biology, while the next issues installment will focus
extensively on physically manipulating our biology. Of course its
hard to define exactly what I mean by enhancing biology, as pretty
much all of the technologies that we have presented so far manage
this in one way or another. So lets look at two major
technologies/ideas that will enhance human beings biology: nanobots
and new senses. These approaches are not only about allowing us to
be healthier and to sense the world in new ways but, as you will
see, also how they may significantly change the way we communicate
and understand the world. NANOBOTS You have probably heard of
nanobots, but what are they and do they really exist? The idea of
tiny robots may project a serious misunderstanding of what these
things are, so Ill try to clarify it here. The human body, as we
have discussed in recent articles, is made up of tiny structures
that we call molecules and relies heavily on combinations of these
shapes (molecules) to perform different kinds of functions. As
described in our Earth special edition, drugs are nothing more than
specifically shaped molecules that have been found to be able to
bind with specific molecules within our body to fix it. They are
like keys that unlock specific doors.
- 108. Now, here comes the nanobot. A nanobot is nothing more
than a bunch of molecules, much like drug molecules or the
molecules that form your DNA, that are smartly assembled by humans
into specific shapes, similar to how you might create a 3D model,
and their roles are a mechanical one. THE KEYS NANOBOT But the way
that medicine is currently used is more like trying to unlock a
real door by throwing millions or billions of keys at your
apartment, hoping that one will hit the doors lock and open it. It
works, to a degree, only because of the massive number of keys you
throw at the issue, but these keys can also damage other things. As
an example, if you have a specific key that can unlock the
self-destruction mechanism in a cancerous cell, then it is very
risky to dump billions of those keys into a human body, as they may
very well kill many of the healthy ones as well.
- 109. HERE ARE THE BASICS OF HOW ONE IS BUILT Typical DNA is
composed of two strands bound to each other within a special shape
(double helix), where the connectors on one side (strand) match
with those of the other side, somewhat similar to a zipper. If you
start with just one side of a zipper, and then create and add
smaller parts of other half-zippers that only match some positions/
parts of the first half-zipper, you can make the entire first long
piece of half DNA change its shape any way you want to. Heres an
animation with the process:
- 110. THE BIG HALF-ZIPPER THE SMALL HALF-ZIPPERS These are real
images of real structures made entirely out of DNA and using the
method I just described above. We also recommend that you watch
this TEDtalk video to better understand how this works, as it is a
very interesting process.
- 111. Today, they are able to make many different tiny molecular
shapes that, because of their form, can perform many functions. To
keep to the same example with the cancerous cells, if you are able
to place cell killer keys inside of a cage, and then design this
cage to open only when it comes in direct contact with a cancerous
cell, then you can deliver the cargo (the drug/key) only to
cancerous cells throughout a body, without causing any harm to
healthy cells. That cage is a nanobot. MOLECULE/SIGNAL THAT OPENS
THE NANOBOT SIDE OF THE NANOBOT (OPEN) FRONT OF THE NANOBOT
(CLOSE)
- 112. CANCEROUS CELL MOLECULE/SIGNAL THAT OPENS THE NANOBOT
FRONT OF THE NANOBOT (OPEN) CELL 'KILLER' (KEYS) So, instead of
throwing billions of keys at an apartment to get one to unlock the
door while the others cause damage the apartment, imagine all of
those keys wrapped inside soft tiny boxes that cannot damage the
apartment, and these boxes only open and release the key when they
make direct contact with the door lock. This way, you will not
damage the apartment while benefitting from a much more exact
delivery system.
- 113. This is not a theory. This is now happening in the lab
with animal testing, where they are already able to build bridges
for tissue growth (for example, for spinal cord injuries), detect
various types of viruses/bacterium, delivering many kinds of drugs,
or actually target cancerous cells with success (they can identify
12 types of tumors). Real photos of these nanobots:
- 114. They can even be made to cooperate with each other to
behave more like a swarm. Its made possible by their lego-like
behavior, so that when one combines with another, then one or both
of them may open up or otherwise change their combined shape toward
a specific outcome. It can also be compared to a computer program,
as they can be built to load an ensemble of related drugs inside
many of these boxes for programmed release, all based on specific
situations that may be found in the body. So, if they find a
particular situation/disease that requires 5 different drugs to be
administered in a specific order and over specific time intervals,
then, by the way the containers assemble after being triggered by
the encountered situation, they can open their cages in a
particular way to release the 5 required drugs, as needed, rather
than all at once. WATCH THIS VIDEO TO BETTER UNDERSTAND THIS If the
human body can be mapped by the unique molecules that are found in
each individual area of the human body, then these nanobots can use
that map to better target specific zones. It is also now possible
to activate or deactivate these nanobots using remote control,
which significantly adds to their capabilities. Watch this TED talk
for additional information about all of this. The same researchers
recently announced that a human trial is due to begin very soon for
treating leukemia (a form of blood cell cancer).(source)
- 115. While these nanorobots are essentially various molecular
shapes that bind and lock-unlock when in contact with certain
targeted molecules inside the human body, and their reactions are
continuously being made made more sophisticated, they still
represent a shoot in all directions solution, as they must be
injected into the body, perhaps by the billions. They are able to
bind where they are intended to bind, in large part due to the
presence of their large numbers moving through the body and
increasing their chances of locating all of the existing targets
that require their treatment. The research and promises of these
tiny structures is fantastic, but there is still much more to
nanobots. Another approach is to develop nanobots that are more
than simple molecular shapes; more complex and better controlled
from outside so they can perform more like the real, full size
robots that we are used to. There are already a few examples, but
keep in mind that, although they may seem simple while still
performing relatively primitive tasks, this research is much more
about continually expanding the future capabilities of these
nanorobots and how humans can already manipulate and control such
extraordinarily tiny devices. THIS TINY ROCKET-SHAPED THING IS 60
TIMES LARGER THAN THE MOLECULAR BOTS ABOVE, BUT THIS IS ACTUALLY A
MOTOR-BASED NANOBOT - PERHAPS THE TINIEST MOTOR IN THE WORLD. It
can spin extremely fast while being controlled by soundwaves and
magnetism for rotational speed and overall movement.
- 116. It can also be coated with certain biochemicals that are
then delivered according to the motors rotational speed, thus these
bots can be controlled for how much medicine they deliver, and
through magnetism they can control where these tiny nanobots go to
deliver it. They can also be made to target, for instance,
cancerous cells, and then puncture/ destroy them from outside, or
also from inside the cell, where these nanobots can insert
themselves and, by spinning at very high speed, they can literally
shred the cells interior. HERE ARE SOME REAL FOOTAGE WITH THESE
NANOBOTS IN ACTION These nanobots can also move autonomously and,
perhaps in the near future, be able to find and automatically cure
all kinds of cell-related diseases. Even more interestingly, they
plan to focus on making these tiny rocket- shaped robots assemble
themselves into bigger structures for performing more complex
tasks.(source) Other mobile nanobots currently exist, but these are
only being tested for their movement within the human body, but
without any specific application for them.(source)
- 117. EXPLANATION VIDEO Some fascinating research is also going
toward decrypting the natural healing properties of the human body
and now some of these functions are known to be connected with the
nervous system. By introducing tiny nanorobots in key locations,
they can now tweak some parts of the nervous system to cure some
diseases. So, instead of relying on ingested drugs that, due to
their huge number spreading throughout the body, eventually find
themselves at the right spot, and instead of nanobots that can
deliver drugs to more targeted spots, this new approach tweaks the
body to create and deliver the proper drugs (molecules) itself to
proper locations. This is a very new approach, but it has already
been tested in several patients and seems to already be working for
a handful of symptoms/diseases.(source)
- 118. A hundred or so years ago, human beings started building
up a better understanding of cancer, deciding that the best way to
remove cancer would be through surgery. What they quickly realized
is that, in almost all cases, the cancer reappeared after the
surgery. As a result, they concluded that they would have to cut
out even more bits of the infected human parts to better ensure
removal of all of the cancer. With breast cancer, for example, they
often ended up removing huge chunks of the pectoral and arm
muscles, leaving the women with parts of their bodies completely
non-functional. The procedure was gruesome and inefficient.(source)
Today, we use similar methods for dealing with cancer, except that
the scalpel is more and more replaced with toxins (chemotherapy) or
radiation. Chemotherapy is a method of injecting substances that
kill cancerous cells into the body, but the problem is that it
cannot always differentiate between them and normal cells and,
therefore, destroys healthy cells as well.(video explanation)
Radiation treatments shoot atoms or particles that are smaller than
atoms at the cancer cells from an external device. While it boasts
much higher precision than chemo, it cannot target cancerous cells
that are widely spread throughout the body (metastasis).(video
explanation) These approaches are merely more precise versions of
old-fashioned surgery, since they also affect other organs or are
still quite imprecise at removing all cancerous cells. But nanobots
change all of this, as they are the perfect surgeons; targeting
only what you want them to target, and managing that goal
throughout the entire body. Imagine having these small robots
inside you, responding to and curing the earliest stages of various
diseases without you even aware of it. This continual state of
near-optimum health highlights the power of these tiny bots: it
will enhance our biology, making us more resistant to diseases (and
perhaps immune to most).
- 119. NEW SENSES Humans have 5 senses, right? Well, no. Humans
can sense the world in many different ways, through many various
inputs. Skin, tongue and nose, ears, hair follicles, eyes, pain
receptors, pulmonary stretch receptors, stretch receptors in the
gastrointestinal tract and many other receptors allow us to feel
different things: temperature, balance, lightwaves, soundwaves,
certain chemical reactions, vibrations, the need to pee, eat,
sneeze; we can feel dizzy because of certain chemicals or
visual/auditory cues, sick, cold, hot, and so on. Theres no proper
way of defining and categorizing a sense, since sometimes many of
them function together as one, or one cannot be fully isolated
and/or understood. TOUCH SIGHT SMELL TASTE HEARING
- 120. When I first tried seafood and a friend asked me what it
tasted like, I said chicken. How else could I describe the taste?
If I had used chemistry and biology to describe the taste to him,
it would have been extremely complicated (perhaps completely
unrealistic), but since we both have the same kind of taste
receptors and we had both tasted chicken before, we could relate it
to that experience. The way we sense the world, while certainly
subjective, seems to be the most powerful communication device and
the best tool for us humans to understand the world in and around
us. I can use a compass to guide myself around on the planet, or I
can study the physics of the magnetic field of the Earth, but it
would become far easier for me to have a belt around my waist that
allows me to basically sense Earths magnetic field through tiny
electrical impulses or vibrations to my skin that indicate, for
example, the direction and distance to the North Pole. That would
help me make sense of it far more completely than with the aid of a
simple compass and/ or strong academic understanding of the physics
behind it. I watched a documentary many years ago showing how they
had tested such a belt, and it proved to be very efficient in
allowing a person to better understand his/her position in space,
while the subjects overall orientation improved significantly.
Similarly, tiny electronics are now being developed that can act as
a sensor of magnetic fields (source).
- 121. As weve shown earlier in this series, the brain is the
task organ while the rest: ears, eyes, skin, etc., are the sensing
organs. Therefore, adding a new sense, or a set of senses, should
not be a difficult task for the brain to adopt. If you think about
it, so many creatures have similar brains with ours and many of
them have very different kinds of senses. Some are very sensitive
to heat, some are able to see in low light, sense smell thousands
of times better than us, detect lightwaves well outside of our
natural range, sense the magnetic field of the Earth, enjoy 360
degree vision, and so on. All of these tasks, although sensed by
different kinds of organs, are managed by their neurons (brain).
So, can we add new senses to our own neurons? Sure we can. Weve
already highlighted some expansions of our existing senses in the
previous issue (hearing light, seeing sound, etc.). Those were
intended to replace some biological errors (blindness, for
instance), so lets take a closer look at so